Welcome!

CS4ELA is a nationwide initiative to bring together English educators who are interested in ways to embed computer science into the Language arts. Let me tell you a little about this work.

Ready to see what this can look like in practice? Check out the resources below. There are four classroom-ready projects (three called mixed literary analyses and one called BardBots) and additional resources, which I update periodically. Enjoy and share!

Mixed Literary Analyses

Mixed literary analyses introduce students to computational text analysis techniques by exposing them to the ways quantitative data about literature can deepen one’s qualitative interpretations. Here are three samples:

Plotting Plots | Students use word frequency data related to Romeo and Juliet to create an analogue graph of the interplay between “love” and “death”.

Counting Characters | Students use a web-based text mining application called Voyant Tools to analyze lovers’ relationships in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Distant Readings | Students use Voyant Tools again, this time to analyze ALL of Shakespeare’s tragedies at once.

All units include a three-week curriculum map that leverages The Folger’s Shakespeare Library’s Shakespeare Set Free.

Bardbots: A Shakespearean Introduction to Robotics

BardBots is a project in which students are introduced to key concepts in computational thinking via an unlikely combination: Shakespeare and robots. We believe that the distance between the humanities, the arts, and computer science is not as wide as it appears. The project emerged over a series of conversations where we started thinking creatively about computer science education: What does literary study teach us about computational thinking? What does robotics teach us about humanity? Are computational languages really just another kind of human language? The result is BardBots. And there is a 20+ free curriculum guide available.

Other Resources

Join the CS4ELA Facebook Group, where you can connect with other educators and stay abreast of ongoing developments